Donald Trump’s war on science and anything that will help take the country forward to a clean energy future has continued with his directive ordering the U.S. General Services Administration to shutter all Electric Vehicle Charging (EVC) Stations positioned on federal properties.
According to reporting from Lisa Sorg at Inside Climate News:
“More than 800 federal buildings, such as those for national laboratories, Veterans Affairs, NASA, and military bases, offer electric vehicle chargers, according to a database of alternative fuel stations hosted by the U.S. Department of Energy…”
The Biden/Harris Administration intensified efforts to place these EVC stations (including 140 that are solar-powered) on federal sites and launched efforts to ensure that federally owned light-duty vehicles (about 450,000, including postal ones) would be fully electrified by 2035.
Since returning to office, Mr. Trump has taken steps to reverse what he labels “The Green New Deal” by unconstitutionally blocking funds to projects, including in MAGA-friendly Red Districts and areas that benefit his DOGE brother in arms, Tesla owner Elon Musk that can be construed as helping achieve clean energy sustainability.
All these backward moves do is potentially help adversaries like China leap above us in clean energy technology and make our nation weaker, less safe, and unhealthier.
Responding to a request to comment on this development, Arizona House District Three Representative Yassamin Ansari stated:
“Getting rid of EV chargers at federal locations doesn’t slow our energy transition, it just makes it harder to charge already existing federal EVs. And offloading current chargers is a huge waste of already existing technology and money. Elon Musk is literally the CEO of America’s largest electric vehicle company–sounds like trouble in paradise.”
Representative Ansari may have a point in saying that Trump’s actions will not slow the energy transition.
For example, according to an article written by Dan Gearino for Inside Climate News, ten new electric battery manufacturing factories are set to open this year.
All these good-paying job-creating manufacturing centers are set to open in states that the Trump/Vance ticket won in 2024.
One of them is in Queen Creek Arizona.
At least Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, unlike the current duo, did not care whether the district was red or blue when considering where to help fund these forward-looking sustainability industries.
It may be hard for Trump to put the clean energy genie back in the bottle given they are in red districts represented by MAGA Republican Congressmen who are really having a fun time speaking to their constituents at recent town hall meetings.
The Clean Energy train has left the station and it may be very hard to turn it back despite what the nation’s leading climate denier wants.
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